MENA Opportunities

Relics, the biggest ever show of work by Damien Hirst was recently unveiled in the tiny, energy-rich state of Qatar, in the Persian Gulf. As well as the provocative artist’s spot and spin paintings and his signature medicine cabinets, the show boasted the biggest pickled shark he has ever made, weighing in at a gargantuan 76 tons, and his diamond-encrusted skull, a piece that he once boasted was the most expensive artwork ever made by a living artist. The exhibition was staged in Qatar’s capital Doha, in the Al Riwaq exhibition space, a building which had been covered with coloured dots for the occasion. But that is not all: outside an as-yet-unfinished medical centre, Hirst had placed The Miraculous Journey, a series of 14 massive bronze sculptures charting a foetus from conception to birth. The project cost a reported $20m. The sculptures were seen as highly controversial in Qatar, where shop mannequins still sometimes don’t have heads, because of the Muslim unease with anything fi...

If you are – or want to be – an investor, we’re guessing you’re probably seriously eyeing the Kingdom’s bourse right about now. Since we can’t let you fly blind, here’s a quick ten-point Saudi equities primer from Standard & Poor’s (S&P) for you to make an informed decision: 1. The highly diversified market has 169 listed companies across 15 different sectors. It is the largest stock market in the Mena region. 2. It has an average daily liquidity of more than $2.3bn, making it the seventh largest and the fourth most liquid market among the GEMs (global emerging markets). 3. The opening of the market paves the way for Saudi Arabia to be included in the MSCI emerging markets index by 2017. This should help it attract $13.7bn in flows. Currently, it is considered a frontier market (i.e., too small to be in the emerging category). 4. Approximately 90 per cent of the market is dominated by Saudi retail investors right now. Only three per cent of daily trading v...

Lebanese entrepreneur and investor Charles Corm has quietly built one of the most enviable track records in global finance through his private investment firm, CORMCO, which he founded in 1998.  Over a 26-year span, CORMCO has posted a 21% annualized return, trouncing the S&P 500’s 10% and the Nasdaq Composite’s 14% over the same period. The outperformance is largely credited to a string of early, high-conviction bets on tech, biotech, and real estate companies around the world. Among Corm’s most notable investments: Broadcom’s IPO in 1998, Nvidia’s 1999 public debut, and a stake in Dubai-based Emaar Properties when it went public in 2000. “We look for inflection points where capital, innovation, and macro trends collide,” Corm has said in past remarks to investors.  Corm, 50, serves as Managing Partner of CORMCO, which remains fully privately held. While low-profile compared to other names in global finance, his influence stretches behind the scenes into elite investor c...